A very slightly different Battle of the Gabbard

[mostlyharmless]

The Battle of the Gabbard was an encounter during the First Anglo-Dutch War which ended in an English victory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Gabbard. I am proposing to make a single small change, possibly because a Dutch gunner stumbles.

Richard Deane en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Deane_(regicide) and George Monck en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Monck were commanders and were actually on the same quarter deck of their flagship. According to bcw-project.org/biography/richard-deane "At the outset of the battle of the Gabbard on 2 June 1653, Deane was struck by a cannon ball, which killed him instantly. Monck was beside him on the quarter-deck of their flagship the Resolution and threw a cloak over Deane's remains to avoid discouraging the sailors."

So what if the cannon ball kills Monck and leaves Deane in command?

Both Deane and Monck were specialists in artillery (Deane commanding the guns at Naseby) which is probably why they were sent to sea, although Deane may have been a sailor before the Civil War. Thus they may follow similar trajectories until Cromwell's death.

However, as a regicide and relative of Oliver Cromwell, Richard Deane is not going to assist in the Restoration of Charles II. So what happens next?

[stevep]

Apr 19, 2023 13:41:27 GMT mostlyharmless said:

The Battle of the Gabbard was an encounter during the First Anglo-Dutch War which ended in an English victory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Gabbard. I am proposing to make a single small change, possibly because a Dutch gunner stumbles.

Richard Deane en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Deane_(regicide) and George Monck en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Monck were commanders and were actually on the same quarter deck of their flagship. According to bcw-project.org/biography/richard-deane "At the outset of the battle of the Gabbard on 2 June 1653, Deane was struck by a cannon ball, which killed him instantly. Monck was beside him on the quarter-deck of their flagship the Resolution and threw a cloak over Deane's remains to avoid discouraging the sailors."

So what if the cannon ball kills Monck and leaves Deane in command?

Both Deane and Monck were specialists in artillery (Deane commanding the guns at Naseby) which is probably why they were sent to sea, although Deane may have been a sailor before the Civil War. Thus they may follow similar trajectories until Cromwell's death.

However, as a regicide and relative of Oliver Cromwell, Richard Deane is not going to assist in the Restoration of Charles II. So what happens next?

  Now that is an interesting possibility.  I thought you were going to influence the battle but that is a deeper point for thought.  There is still much sympathy for the idea of a monarch in Britain so there's likely to be some attempt to 'restore' the monarchy, with Charles II as the most obvious candidate but if there's no Monck to jump into the royalist camp while a military commander and Deane has reasons to be strongly opposed to such a restoration then you could see a long lasting Republic and possibly a civil war at some point.  Which could be much longer and more bitter than when James II was deposed in 1688.